Geography Eco-Tourism

"Eco-tourism is a feasible alternative to the negative impacts of mass tourism". Discuss this statement. Eco-tourism is defined as being responsible when travelling to natural areas that protect and conserve the environment, helping to raise the well-being of the locals living there. Eco-tourism is an excellent alternative to the negative impacts of mass tourism as it lets visitors appreciate the scenery of an area, or discover and understand a local culture, and at the same time it also protects the locals and let them reap benefits. Generally, eco-tourism helps to minimise the impacts made by mass tourism as the volume of waste, pollution will be greatly reduced because mass tourism uses up these natural resources such as water, energy, food and destroys natural habitats. Consumption of these resources also puts huge amount of pressure on the local supplies. Hence therefore eco-tourism will help lessen these impacts and be a more feasible alternative to the negative impacts of mass tourism. Eco-tourism helps to prevent the impacts of mass tourism like environmental degradation and the negative effects on the ecosystem, as the amount of waste produced is minimised, water and energy is also being conserved. It is usually conducted in small groups in order for this to be effective and hence, with careful planning of authorities, money and revenue will be collected by the locals and not only will it help boost economy, but also not damage the environment. Such cases are found in Sarawak, East Malaysia where it has become a popular ecotourism destination and has attracted many visitors due to its vast number of cultural and natural attractions. The statistics show that Sarawak earns 5% of its gross national product from tourism, and this income can be used to conserve the nature and physical parts of Sarawak. Therefore we can see here that economy is being boosted and eco-tourism certainly is an alternative to mass tourism as both of them raises the